


for the glory

by perhapssoon



Series: four unlikely allies [1]
Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Gen, actually she regrets something, its like that road race episode, raven regrets nothing, red x is probably not jason todd but ok, the team no one asked for but im doing it anyway, theyre all gay but its ok, weird obstacle course thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 05:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17933480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: Four people only. Those are the rules. Raven isn't worried though, because even if she has to leave her friends behind, she can make her own team.It's a funny thing though, isn't it, who she can find? A hero, a villain, an anti-villain, and a former villain. All in one team.Through weird dynamics, the four of them make it work. Somehow. Maybe they'll win this one for once.





	for the glory

**Author's Note:**

> headcanon that kyd's cloak power thing draws on his own energy if he teleports more than one person (i.e. himself)
> 
> also headcanon that everyone's not straight.
> 
> the fic title is the song i had on repeat while writing this fhsdjf gave off some great vibes

"What do you mean we can't go in?" Robin looks close to blowing a gasket, and Raven has to admire his ability to make his face such a bright red.

"Sorry." The guard at the gates doesn't even look slightly apologetic as he jerks a thumb towards a sign tacked nearby. "It's the rules. No team larger than four people."

Robin huffs, but he seems to realize he won't win the argument here. They need to enter the tournament, and they need to do it quickly and get to the objective. 

"I'll stay behind," Raven offers, seeing that they won't get anywhere with this argument. "You guys can go ahead."

From the looks of her teammates, they think it's the most preposterous idea they've ever heard of. For her, it's only sensible. They need the prize at the end and as far as she's concerned, they need to make a quick decision.

"Are you sure, friend Raven?" Starfire asks, her eyebrows knitted together. "We are of need of you in this tournament. I cannot imagine doing the fighting without you."

"Yes, I'm sure." Raven can tell Robin's itching to enter the arena; after all, it's his stuff that's being offered as a prize.

There's a competition being held in Jump City today, some sort of obstacle course, with the only requirements being that in order to participate, one had to enter in a group of four, and no outside communication, but anything else was allowed. Superman himself could've entered with three other members of the Justice League and get through it just fine. The prize, as advertised by a flyer stuck to the side of Titans Tower, was revealed to be personal belongings of at least three Titan members, one of which being Robin.

Robin frowns. As much as he wants to get his stuff back, Raven can see the hesitation on leaving a team member behind. "You won't be able to enter unless you get three others to join. KF should be free. Maybe. I can contact him--" he reaches for his communicator, but Raven stops him.

"No. Really, it's fine." She can find three people on her own. That is, if she wanted to. As far as she knows, the other Titans have already put themselves into groups of four, and though an extra team would help Robin get his stuff back, she had no qualms in sitting this one out.

"Ok..." Robin backs off, the frown still there, and Raven feels a slight ping of guilt. "Well I guess we'll be seeing you after the tournament."

"Yeah," she says to herself, watching her friends enter through the gates, Beast Boy turning around to wave at her before the doors close behind them. "Good luck, guys."

"This is stupid!" She's drawn from staring at the gates to her left where she's startled to see Kid Flash face to face with Aqualad, waves of tension radiating from their bodies. "Why can't she join?"

"It's the rules, KF," Aqualad replies. "Four people. No outside help."

Kid Flash grumbles unintelligibly, and Raven takes that moment to glance at the rest of this tournament team. Kid Flash and Aqualad, obviously, as well as Bumblebee, and Terra. She doesn't understand the problem until she sees Jinx lingering off to the side, the beginnings of a frown crossing her features.

They have five, like her own friends, and that means someone needs to go. By the looks of it, Kid Flash is the only thing anchoring Jinx to this group, making it a majority against her. Raven makes a split second decision and walks over to them.

"Hey, actually, Jinx is on my team."

"Your team?" Kid Flash looks suspicious, and so does Jinx, until Raven gives her a look. 

_Play along._

Jinx nods suddenly, her expression frozen in both excitement and surprise. "Y-yeah! I'm with Raven. Sorry, Kid Flash. I totally forgot to tell her." She laughs, more nervously than anything. 

Kid Flash still looks suspicious, but he lets it slide. "You sure you are, Jinx?"

She nods, and KF narrows his eyes slightly but turns, glancing at Aqualad. "There. Your team is all set."

"See you at the tournament!" Jinx waves, a fake smile on her lips as Raven drags her away and Kid Flash returns a genuine smile in return.

"See you!"

Once out of earshot and sight of Kid Flash and his team, Jinx rounds on Raven. "What was that?" 

"They obviously weren't going to let you join," Raven points out and Jinx slumps her shoulders.

"Yeah, I know." She pauses before looking around. "Do you actually have a team or did you just do that to spare me the embarrassment?"

"Kinda both?" Raven attempts a smile before shaking her head. "No. I was just sparing you from being booted from their team. We can try to make our own."

"There probably aren't any others left," Jinx says, and from the faint look of panic on her face, Raven can sense that something that is being offered as a prize in the arena must belong to her. "Everyone has a group of friends already." Her eyes narrow. "Wait. Did your friends kick you off?"

"No, I chose to leave. They wouldn't get in otherwise, and Robin's stuff is up for grabs there."

Jinx nods slowly, and Raven can see the gears turning in her mind. "So's Kid Flash's. You really think we can get a team?"

"Probably," Raven says, right as there's a faint hum next to them. She's instantly on alert, her hands balling into fists. She's about to kick whoever the hell appeared next to them when Jinx suddenly cries out.

"Kyd?"

Raven's vision clears and she can see Jinx, eyes comically large, staring at Kyd Wykkyd, who appears to have no clue that the wrath of Azarath was about to be brought upon his head.

"What are you doing here?" Jinx's voice is bordering on scared and horrified and Raven reminds herself that Jinx still hasn't made up with the HIVE Five for betraying them.

Kyd pushes aside the folds of his cloak so they can see his hands, and he signs,  _Chose to stay behind. Mammoth wants his cooking utensils back._

Raven doesn't need to ask any questions to know that it's probably being held in the arena. "Right. Okay. So." A sudden idea comes to her. "Do you want to join our team?"

Kyd tilts his head.  _Team? There's only two of you._

"Three if we count you." Jinx says, voice still wobbly, but Kyd doesn't hold eye contact with any anger. "So then we're one away."

Raven purses her lips, eyes scanning the area in front of the gates. Everyone seems to be in groups of four as far as she can see--

"You need one more?" The voice is familiar: it's Robin's but not quite. She doesn't need to turn around to know who it is, though Jinx and Kyd look intimidated enough.

"Red X."

The vigilante in question just shrugs in response. "Heard you're short one."

"Why would you want to enter this thing?" Raven crosses her arms. She's not sold on anything Red X would think to try, but she needs to help Robin. Which means getting a group of four.

"C'mon, I know all of you want to win that thing."

Raven isn't buying it. "You said you only work for yourself."

"Yeah, I am." Red X waves a hand in the direction of the arena. "Only way to get what I want is to enter the tournament. That means you. And I know you need a member. They stop accepting teams in about an hour, which is barely enough time to--"

"Yeah, you're in." Jinx says, and when Raven whirls to look at her, she meets Raven's gaze with a defiant look. "Hey, I heard Red X is pretty competent, and he's right. We all want to win that thing."

Raven sighs; a quick glance to Kyd shows that he's uninterested in the whole conversation, instead looking to the gates in anticipation. "Fine."

"Great." Red X jogs to keep up beside her as they move towards the gates. "Robin kick you out? Or was it your choice?"

"My choice," she responds through gritted teeth as the guard waves them a single eyebrow raised.

"Makes sense." He's trying to make conversation but Raven isn't in the mood. She wants to help Robin win this. This is the only way.

Behind the gates is a hallway, and it reminds Raven of a hospital: sterile, clean, and brightly lit. Jinx shudders, taking Red X's spot besides Raven. "This is creepy."

Raven has to admit, the aura of this place is a bit dark, despite the lights, but it doesn't bother her as much as it seems to do to Jinx, who is practically shaking once they reach the end of the hallway, another guard waiting for them with a clipboard. He stares at them as they come to a stop in front, raising the clipboard slightly to glance down at it.

"Raven, Jinx, Kyd Wykkyd, and Red X. Do you have a team name?"

"No." There's no point, in Raven opinion. They all come from different teams, with the exception of Jinx and Raven. They're only here because they share a common goal. Nothing else.

The guard nods. "Alright. The rules of the arena are no killing or you will be disqualified. No outside help or you will be disqualified. Powers are permitted. Anything else goes. You will start out as a group of four. Each misstep a teammate makes, they are out and the remaining team has to continue without them. Understand?"

"Yes."

"You may enter the arena." The guard steps aside, revealing a set of double doors. "Good luck."

They walk through slowly, none of them, including Red X, too keen to enter first. There are cheers around them, but no one is in the stands, but several hundred cameramen, no doubt broadcasting this all over the world. Raven takes the lead to a platform decorated with a huge bullseye. As soon as all four of them are on it, the platform lifts off the ground with a loud grinding noise, as they are moved around the edge of the arena, similar to platforms already situated along the boundaries.

Raven takes in the empty place, the field in front of them completely devoid of anything indicating obstacle course and she knows that they're in for a lot. "We gotta work together," she tells her new teammates, and Kyd nods, giving her a small confidence boost.

At least one person agrees with her.

"Well yeah, duh," Jinx says, eyes darting across the ceiling, looking jittery. "If we don't, things can go badly for us and none of us will make it."

Red X just shrugs, folding his arms, and Raven takes it as a sign of uncertainty. "They made the rules so it's possible to fight our own teammates and still win," he points out, and Raven feels her stomach drop.

He's right, of course, because there aren't any rules against fighting their own teammates. Great.

Someone taps her on the shoulder and Raven turns to see Kyd, blinking owlishly at her.  _We would be best to stay together though. Stronger together than apart._

Well she knows that at least, but Red X, and from Jinx's expression of hesitation, probably haven't considered it. Or maybe they don't want to.

[The tournament will begin in three minutes.] A voice rings out through the stadium, and the ground shakes slightly as the field below them opens up to reveal obstacles, spinning machines, trapdoors, lasers, the works. [All contestants are reminded of the rules. The team who makes it first to the end will win these prizes.]

The ceiling opens up as well, dropping down several display cases, holding different items. Raven picks out Robin's gear, as well as Kid Flash's and Mammoth's cooking tools. She doesn't know what Red X is in for, because there's a lot of cases containing things she doesn't know who they belong to.

"Here we go," Red X mutters next to her, and she looks up to see a huge timer, counting down the minutes, slowly dwindling into seconds.

[Three.]

If they were all disqualified early, she wouldn't blame them.

[Two.]

None of them ever worked together before, at least not closely. Maybe Jinx and Kyd had some experience, but Raven wasn't going to bet on that.

[One.]

There's a loud  _bang_  like a gunshot and the platforms drop, like whatever was keeping them suspended was suddenly cut. Raven feels her heart leap into her throat as the ground plummets.

Kyd is the first to react, leaping off so he hovers in midair. Raven does the same, but she needs to help Jinx and Red X, whether she likes it or not. She catches Kyd's eye and points, the boy understanding her intentions. He flips into a dive, streaking downwards to the rapidly shrinking platform. 

Raven extends her hands, eyes narrowing as she focuses on trying to stop the fall. Kyd is close to the platform now, close enough to grab Jinx by the waist and Red X by the end of his cape. Raven concentrates, her hands glowing with black energy as a sudden bolt of energy cleaves the platform in half, the pieces falling away, leaving Kyd to slowly float to the ground, letting Jinx and Red X down safely.

"Now that was a ride." Red X brushes himself off, seemingly indifferent to the fall. Jinx looks shaken, but still standing.

"Yeah, but it took a lot of time from our hands," Raven points out, gesturing to the huge timer, now turned into a stopwatch. It took them five minutes to even get to the ground. Five minutes in which they could be joining the opposing teams in claiming the prize.

She spots Starfire from across the stadium, bright green energy bolts illuminating her target: Bumblebee.

She has to give it to whoever organized this thing. They really did know how to pit people against each other.

Red X squints across the field, which isn't a great view because they're partially blocked by a nine-foot archway that opens into an empty hallway. "I think we have to go through there. Though it's probably a trap and we could all be disqualified, I'm placing a safe bet on whoever gets through the fastest will trigger the least traps."

And with that, he darts forward, too fast for Raven to stop him.

As soon as he steps over the threshold, the floor opens up, slabs of concrete missing him by inches as they jab outwards from the walls. He grabs onto one, and before it can pull completely back into the wall, he's already off and moving, flicking in and out of existence as he teleports to the next block. Raven has a hard time keeping up with him as he swings and teleports through the hallway, missing being knocked into the open floor by mere inches. Before long, he's on the other side and saluting them, disappearing further into the course.

"Great." Jinx grits her teeth; Raven would do the same if she wasn't astounded at how fast Red X managed to shake them off. "So he's gone. Now what?"

The blocks are still moving, even though Red X had left the chamber. It takes out the idea to fly through the place, but Raven isn't willing to give up yet.

"We get through as well." She glances to Kyd. "Can you teleport more than two people?"

Kyd shakes his head.  _I never tried_.

Jinx frowns. "I can try to trip up the system with my powers. I don't know if it'll work but--"

"It's worth a shot." Raven says.

Jinx opens her hand, a spark of pink energy erupting from her hands and hitting the nearest slab that just popped out of the wall. There's a small  _pop_  and the stone dislocates from its spot and falls into the void. She tsks. "How unlucky."

Her victory is short-lived, however, as another stone slides into place to substitute for the missing one.

Kyd moves forward to block her view before she can release any more bad luck bolts.  _I can try teleporting us one at a time to the other side._

"That's probably a better idea," Jinx says, looking relieved and as Kyd moves to her side, cape at the ready, Raven suddenly has doubts about this.

"Surely they would've thought about people teleporting across this?" 

"Didn't Red X go ahead and do that?"

"Yeah," Raven agrees, "but it was short and only to each block. He didn't try teleporting over the whole abyss."

Kyd blinks at her but doesn't look more or less deterred.  _Do you want to try first?_

Raven casts a glance to Jinx, who edges slightly away from the other teen. She doesn't look ready to be a guinea pig in this, so Raven sighs. "Yeah, let's go."

It only takes a second for Kyd to envelop her in the folds of his cloak.

She's traveled like this before, and it brings memories she doesn't really want to have. Being trapped in Psimon's portal wasn't a pleasant experience, and she doesn't want to live through that again. It's over quickly, however, when Kyd suddenly rematerializes and drops Raven onto the ground, none too gently.

"Ow." She says it more for impact than anything else and Kyd gives her an apologetic look.

_Sorry. There's something off in this room that made it hard to teleport._

There's a distant shout and they turn to see Jinx waving her arms. "Don't leave me here, guys!"

She has reason to be worried and Raven would too, if she were stuck on the wrong end of a course with no way to get through. Kyd, however, rolls his eyes the best he can for someone with no pupils and teleports back to her. It takes much longer to get Jinx to Raven, and the demonic girl finds herself waiting on the balls of her feet for them to reappear.

She's about to give up hope and go on without them when Kyd suddenly appears in front of her, dropping Jinx as he falls out of the air, nearly landing on the pink-haired girl, who rolls away just in time.

Jinx struggles to her feet, clearly shaken, and Raven helps her up. "You good?"

"Yeah, that was just.. not great." Jinx runs a hand through her bangs and blows a whiff of air upwards to ruffle them. "It was like I was drowning in darkness."

She crouches next to Kyd, who's still on the ground, beads of sweat collecting on his face, eyes shut tight. Raven opens her mouth to ask him to give her a status report on how his mental state is, but he raises a hand to stop her and signs,  _I'm fine. Just drained. I think the energy in this place is draining on my powers._

"Can you walk?" Raven says instead.

Kyd opens his eyes and sits up, wincing. He nods and pushes himself to his feet, wobbling slightly.  _I can walk. I might not be able to teleport other people for quite some time though._

Raven takes it as a 'Hurry up and look for the next obstacle' and nods, scanning the area in front of them to discern the next obstacle. Red X is nowhere to be seen, which she doesn't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

The next hallway is pitch black, something Raven isn’t too keen on, even if it matches her whole color scheme thing. It's hard to see in the dark, anyway. Which means they'll be vulnerable there, especially with their lack of sight. She looks over at Kyd, who seems to have recovered from his teleportation.

"I don't suppose you have night vision?" There's a tinge of sarcasm in her voice, but Raven doesn't care at this point whether Kyd picks up on it or not. 

The other teen shrugs, cape flopping over his shoulders as he signs,  _I don't know. I've never tried._

Okay. So the creepy kid didn’t know if he had night vision. Which is kinda suspicious considering the HIVE Five tended to steal at night. But still. Raven couldn’t judge what self awareness Kyd did have because she had no idea how far the other teams had gotten and Red X was still somewhere far ahead. 

“Wait,” Jinx says, crouching and picking up a scrap of paper near the entrance. “What’s this?”

She unfolds the paper and reads, pinching her eyebrows together the farther down she goes. 

“How about reading aloud for those of us who can’t read through paper?” Raven asks and Jinx flushes. 

“Sorry.” She clears her throat. “It says ‘The place is full of energy bolts shooting at you so you can see where you’re going.’ It’s signed by a x.” She flips the paper around so Raven can see the bright red pen inked into the page, looking awfully familiar. 

“Red X wrote that?” she says incredulously. “Why would he help us?”

Jinx shrugs. “I say we try it out. The worst that can happen is all of us get disqualified.”

She moves forward, and her first step triggers a bolt of green light to hurtle towards her face, and she’s barely able to duck in time, the bolt sizzling over her head and hitting one of the blocks of stone behind her in the previous chamber. 

“Well. That answers the question about the bolts.” Raven comments as she stares into the darkness in front of her. “I guess we’re going to have to move forward.”

And before her mind can try to convince her otherwise, she flies forward, a green bolt immeditely firing on her position but she blocks it with an energy shield. Jinx darts under the shield and triggers three more jolts of energy. Kyd teleports in front of her, using his cape to block the bolts, and teleports away.

The further Raven pushes herself through the hallway, she more she realizes Red X was right. The bolts are bright enough to light up their surroundings; even though they exist for only seconds, she can see flashes of x-shurikens imbedded in the walls, no doubt from the expert thief. The hallway’s furnishing are not that impressive. Pipes line the walls, bare concrete in some places, but otherwise a normal hallway. 

“Can you find out where the stuff is coming from?” Raven shouts to Jinx, who nods and sends a wave of pink sparks that illuminate the source of the bolts. Two cameras sit in the topmost corners of the hallway, machines similar to guns perched right under them. 

In the next flash, Kyd materializes in front of the first camera, avoiding the shot from the gun, and slices through the entire device, the remains landing on the floor with a clunk. The room goes dark again, and there’s another crash, signaling the fall of the second part. 

No more shots are forthcoming so Raven hesitantly lowers her shield.

Good news: the laser guns things are down. The bad news: they can't see.

Jinx snaps her fingers and a shower of sparks light the corridor. In the dim pink light, Raven can see the door almost right in front of her face; she would've crashed face-first into the door if she took another step. Without thinking, she opens the door to a circular room, lined with doors.

And she immediately wants to go back because a door directly across from them opens and Robin's team tumbles through. 

"Raven?" Robin looks incredulous, looking from her to Jinx to Kyd, the latter crouching slightly in a fighting stance. "This is your team?"

"Yeah," she says, and offers no explanation.

"Where's your fourth team member?" Robin chooses not to point out that Raven's working with a villain and a former villain and instead focuses on the the dumb questions.

"Working with Red X was a mistake," is her reply.

"I wouldn't count on that," a voice says, and Red X himself drops between the two of them. Robin immediately takes up a defensive pose, aiming his staff at the thief's back.

"Where in Azarath have you been?" Raven asks, feeling a prickly wave of frustration rise.

"We're on Earth, Little Miss Demon," Red X returns. "What do you think? Didn't you get my note?"

Despite all of the anger and annoyance at this teen in front of her, Raven can't help feeling somewhat relieved he didn't  _totally_  leave them behind.

Robin interjects with "Wait, wait, what? He left you a note?"

"Yeah, Bird Boy. I was scouting ahead for them and leaving notes about the obstacles." Red X doesn't even turn to look at Robin, which seems to anger the latter more.

Robin sighs and glances at Raven, anger barely concealed behind a low voice. "Why are you working with him?"

"I needed a team."

"That's not a sufficient answer and you know it."

"Friend Raven," Starfire pipes up, "You are working with the former villain Jinx, as well as the Kyd Wykkyd and now the Red X? What are you planning to do here?"

"Trying to help you, Robin." Raven looks at Starfire, though her words are directed at the boy in front of her. "You want your stuff back, right?"

"...Yeah." By the way he deflates, Raven can tell that she won this argument. "See you guys I guess. Don't go in the way we came out."

They hurry past Raven's team, Beast Boy and Cyborg offering her friendly waves which she returns, and they disappear into a nearby door.

"I already checked that room," Red X says, his smugness evident, and waves a hand at all the doors. "All of these are dead ends."

"You had time to go through  _all_  of them?" Jinx asks, eyes wide. 

"Not my problem you took  _that_  long to get through two obstacles," Red X responds.

"So there's no way out?" Raven turns in a wide circle, as if it would help summon a door to the prize.

Red X shrugs. "We can check the place for secret panels I guess."

Kyd shakes his head and waves a hand to get their attention.  _We can go up._

Raven tilts her head to look up. The ceiling is made of metal, thick steel bars holding it up. It's probably to prevent anyone from escaping, but Raven has her own means of teleportation.

Jinx looks skittish about going through another dark portal. "Are you sure that thing is stable?"

"As stable as you're going to get," Raven replies, and allows Jinx no further objections before tossing the pink-haired girl through the portal. Kyd Wykkyd teleports away and Raven extends her hand to Red X, who backs away.

"Woah, Demon Girl, you're not throwing me up there."

She rolls her eyes. "Then teleport up there yourself."

Red X huffs in response and she can almost see the frown on his face beneath his mask, before he vanishes.

Raven floats through the portal herself, coming out to land gracefully on the roof, the portal vanishing beneath her. She can see the arena in full now, smoking holes in the ceilings from either Starfire or some other person who could shoot through metal, and the huge stopwatch positioned above the field, showing half an hour on the clock and counting.

Kyd points to the center of the field where the cases are innocently standing.  _You think we can just go and grab it?_

"The rules say anything goes," Red X replies, and starts forward. Jinx follows quickly, blasting a structure beam in front of them to clear the way and then they're all sprinting, heading for the cases, getting closer and closer and closer and--

"You win." The cases suddenly vanish, and Raven skids to a stop, nearly crashing into Jinx. The guard that had stood in front of the gates is in front of them, eyebrows raised.

"If we win, then where's the prize?" Red X retorts, crossing his arms.

The guard smiles widely, showing way too many teeth for it to be genuine. He takes off his sunglasses, revealing eyes that are too bright for any normal human. "The prize is you get to die."

There's a loud clang, and the lights flicker as a huge cage drops out of nowhere, trapping them. A group of guards appear inside the cage of nowhere, weapons consisting of electric tasers and other weird devices Raven can't identify.

 “Nice,” Red X mutters. He flexes his hand and the x’s on the backs of his gloves glow briefly as an x-shaped blade pops into existence. “Finally some fun stuff to do.”

Jinx snickers, her hands bursting into pink flames. “Yeah, same.”

"Good to know you guys are bonding over a death threat," Raven says drily, watching Kyd struggle to hold in his laughter.

_Finally getting along, are we?_

"C'mon, Thy Kid of Wickedness, it's hardly any reason to laugh over."

Kyd signs something in reply that Raven can't see and Red X snorts. "Yeah okay."

He hurls himself at the nearest guard, blocking their attempted strike with his wristblade, and following through with an uppercut that snapped the guard's head back. But where one fell, two more took his place. Red X didn't seem bothered by this, however, as he fought both at the same time, ducking and dodging and occasionally full-on blocking their attacks.

Jinx takes on two as well, moving surprisingly fast in her platform heels, something Raven would've forgone for practicality. But the pink-haired girl seemed to move as if it were part of her body, flipping over the bolts of lighting like an acrobat. She sends a hexbolt into one of the guards' face and sends her sprawling backwards, her gun backfiring in his face. The other growls in response and charges, but Jinx claps her hands to release a pink shockwave that sent him, head over heels, into the bars of the cage.

Raven engages one guard, copying Jinx's move, and encases him with telekinetic energy, shoving him back to wedge him between two bars of the cell. The other aims at her and fires, but misses entirely, the bolt instead sailing past Raven's head to fly towards Kyd, who teleports in time, dragging the guard he's fighting with him, dropping him unceremoniously onto Red X, who shoots a constraint to pin him to the ceiling of the cell. Raven possesses the guard, knocking him unconscious, and glances over at the guy who captured them in the first place.

"You really underestimate us, don't you?"

"Seems like Bright Eyes here forgot we can all escape this 'cage'." Red X says, and flexes his wrist. There's a small beeping noise before the corners of the cage explode and the bars fall away.

The newly dubbed 'Bright Eyes' backs away, eyes narrowing. 

Jinx glances at Raven. "Can we boot him out of here or do we have to arrest him?"

"Arrest him, probably," Red X grumbles. "Titans are never fun."

"Hey," Jinx pouts. "I'm an Honorary Titan."

Red X shrugs. "There's a difference between honorary and full on hero."

He shoots out a tripwire that wraps around 'Bright Eyes' and the villain falls on his face with a grunt. Jinx snaps her fingers and the ground opens up beneath him as the support beams crumble. 

"He's all yours, chief," she says to Raven.

Raven just sighs and peers down into the hole where the guy is currently struggling to break free of his bonds. She conjures a portal beneath him and he falls into it, shrieking in horror.

"Where does that thing go?" Red X asks, looking somewhat impressed.

"To a place where he'll be stuck until we decide what to do with him," Raven replies, and she turns to face her temporary teammates. "And we need to find the stuff he stole."

\--

 _I'm impressed,_  Kyd signs as they make their way to where the cases -- they were real, hopefully -- sat in plain sight above the huge stopwatch.  _He managed to steal all of this stuff without being noticed and then hold a challenging obstacle course._

"Yeah, well, I think we're all impressed," Jinx gripes as she struggles with opening a case with a bunch of what Raven thinks are shoelaces. "We didn't manage to steal anything other than pillows for your forts."

Somehow, Raven knows that she's talking about the time she used to be with the HIVE Five.

Jinx manages to use a hex blast to open the case, and she pulls the shoelaces out, grimacing. "I don't know why KF wants these so badly."

"Favorite shoelaces?" Red X says incredulously. So far, he hasn't done anything except open each case he came across and inspect the contents. "That's a thing?"

"Apparently," Jinx replies.

Kyd had managed to portal his hand into another case, pulling out at least three spatulas and a soup ladle. Jinx looks at them in surprise. "Mammoth still uses those?"

Kyd tucks the utensils under one arm as he signs,  _Not like we could steal any new ones after you left._

The mood turns slightly awkward as Jinx turns away, waves of discomfort radiating off of her.

"Anyway," Red X puts in, intent on redirecting the conversation. "We all got what we wanted?"

Raven looks down at the briefcase -- it's the same one Ding Dong Daddy stole, how funny -- she's holding and nods, before scrunching her eyes at the thief. "What did you come here for, again?"

Red X kicks at the case at his feet idly. "Just to see if anything was worth taking, but all this stuff is supposed to be special for personal reasons."

Raven hums in response. "Okay. As long as you don't steal anything. Let's get rid of this course."

She raises her hands. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

The entire obstacle course levitates off the ground and Raven directs it to the sky, creating a portal right above it and shoving the entire course into the gaping abyss. 

Red X whistles. "Pretty cool."

Now that the course is gone, Raven can see the teams clustered in various spots. Some still have four members, like Robin's group, but the others have three, even two people left. Jinx takes matters into her own hands by going to the edge of the huge stopwatch and raising her hands in the air, hexbolts erupting from her fingertips to gain everyone's attention.

"Hey everyone!" she shouts, "Your stuff is all up here!"

There's an immediate swarm for the stopwatch, and Raven envelops her teammates in her astral form and flies them down to where their real teams are waiting.

"Raven!" Robin's beside her immediately. "You got it?"

"Yeah." She hands him the briefcase, and he takes it, relief showing on his face before he looks irked.

"Thanks, but what about your, ah,  _teammates_?" He puts emphasis on the word 'teammates' and Raven cringes slightly. She has mixed feelings about the other three now, despite her best efforts to keep them in the proper categories in her mind. "You gonna do anything to them? We can arrest them right now if you want, since they're in easy reach. Exception of Jinx, cause y'know, she's with KF."

She looks over to where Jinx is currently in a tight embrace with Kid Flash, to where Kyd is handing over the utensils to Mammoth, a slight smile on his face, and Red X is standing there, watching her.

The thief salutes her and teleports away as she turns to look back at Robin and her friends, who look expectant for a reply.

She pushes down the urge to tell Robin about the dude trapped in her portal, how her temporary teammates actually helped each other and worked together, how she kinda wanted to get to know all of them now that she had spent more time with them, how they weren't as annoying as Robin and the other Titans seemed to take them.

"I think it'll be fine."

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are appreciated!!
> 
> they help me keep writing honestly, and thanks for taking the time to read this fic!! <3


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